Speeches by Streeting.

“Thanks to the investment that we have announced, those practices will be upgraded. I advise the hon. Gentleman to engage with his local ICB. We are happy to receive representations if we can help, but let me gently point out that the investment is only possible thanks to the decisions made by the Chancellor, which he o…”

“Yes; experience in office, bluntly.”

“Actually, mental health spending is increasing in real terms for the coming year.”

“I will say a few things and then bring Jim Mackey in. First, ICBs are here to stay. There is not going to be an NHS reform bill that abolishes ICBs. As Jim alluded to in the HSJ, we have encountered a demand against the reductions that we have asked ICBs to make in the attempt to go after duplication and the challenge …”

“No specific date, but it will take up to two years. In the meantime, I am mindful that in doing something of this nature, when and how information is conveyed is a challenge. In any organisation I have ever worked in where I have either been part of a restructure or led a restructure, we would never have handled the pr…”

“We are looking at this as a process over up to two years. That does not mean that that will be when everything is done. There is a process, of bringing teams and the organisation together, and reducing headcount, which will start in the coming months. Although there is much that we can do with changes to primary legisl…”

“No. Certainly not.”

“It depends on the issue. I am glad you asked that question, because it is important for me to underscore this, as the person who has been in this chair for the last nine months. When I think of my team or the team I am responsible for, I don’t just think about the Department of Health and Social Care. I think about the…”

“No, not particularly. I had been talking with Amanda Pritchard, as chief executive of NHS England, about the changes that we needed in the relationship between the Department and NHS England. That is why from day one Amanda and I sought to build a new culture, a one-team culture, which I think, to the credit of people …”

“Even as someone who has paid close attention to how the system is run and led as shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, I was quite surprised at the extent of the duplication that exists between the Department and NHS England. I was taken aback by the extent to which policy and strategy—which I think should always ha…”

“This is one of many areas where we need to take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS.”

“You are tempting me to preannounce the 10-year plan. We want to see improvements in the quality of palliative care. Regardless of the different positions we might have as parliamentarians around this Committee about the merits of assisted dying, it has certainly generated a broader national conversation about palliativ…”

“Yes, we are looking at palliative and end-of-life care in the context of the 10-year plan.”

“As with the planning round, that is under way and the ICBs will be sending their plans and their proposals for reducing cost and headcount, as they are being directed to by Jim, as the new chief executive. They will be sending their plans in to Jim and his team, who will be checking and evaluating them against our prio…”

“We know where we are headed with the 10-year plan, which will be published in June around the spending review. I have been clear for some time now that I wanted more devolution of power in the NHS—more power, freedom, flexibility and responsibility closer to the frontline, and indeed at the frontline. I made it clear i…”

“Put even more money into the frontline, as the Chancellor already is. It is really important to remember that we were elected on a mandate of investment and reform. Even with the £26 billion the Chancellor has allocated, as you alluded to in your opening set of questions on mental health, we could always do with more m…”

“A number of things. First and foremost, we want to make sure that the NHS is well led, and with the various layers of bureaucracy that exist in the NHS, we are reducing waste, inefficiency and duplication. Where we currently have effectively two head offices for the NHS, we will have one. Where we have duplication of f…”

“I welcome further debate on this, but I absolutely stand by what I said on the BBC to Laura Kuenssberg. I appreciate that I sometimes suffer with the affliction of answering direct questions honestly, and that is what I did on Laura Kuenssberg, based on the concerns that clinicians and lots of families have put to me a…”

“I think that those numbers on prescriptions of antidepressants should be cause for concern.”

“Let’s look at some of the things that have been said and written since my comments. The total number of antidepressants prescribed in England increased by 36% between 2016 and 2023, with a concomitant 23% increase in the number of patients receiving antidepressants over that period. The BBC “Panorama” investigation fou…”